Daily Sabbath School

Friday: Further Thought – The Divinity of the Holy Spirit

19th January 2017

As we have seen this week, the biblical evidence for the divinity of the Holy Spirit is very convincing. The Holy Spirit is God. But remember: in thinking about the Holy Spirit, we are dealing with a divine mystery. We reiterate the point: just as we cannot fully explain God and His nature, we have to resist the temptation to make our human comprehension the norm for how God should be.

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

Truth goes far beyond human comprehension, especially when that truth deals with the nature of God Himself.

At the same time, faith in the divinity of the Holy Spirit means more than accepting the bare teaching of the Trinity. It includes reliance on and confidence in the saving work of God as it is commissioned by the Father and accomplished through the Son in the power of the Spirit. “It is not essential for us to be able to define just what the Holy Spirit is. . . . The nature of the Holy Spirit is a mystery. Men cannot explain it, because the Lord has not revealed it to them. Men having fanciful views may bring together passages of Scripture and put a human construction on them, but the acceptance of these views will not strengthen the church. Regarding such mysteries, which are too deep for human understanding, silence is golden.” – Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles, pp. 51, 52.

Discussion Questions:

Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once wrote: “What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.” Though his context was quite different from what Ellen G. White wrote above, the principle is the same. That is, why is it better to keep silent about aspects of God and of spiritual truth in general that have not been revealed by Inspiration?
Sometimes it is helpful to reflect upon a theological position by asking the question: “What would be lost if the proposal were untrue?” For instance: “What would be lost if Christ were not divine?” With regard to the Holy Spirit, reflect on the following question: “What would be lost if the Holy Spirit were not fully God?”
What does the following quote say to us on a practical level? “The Holy Spirit, who is to fill us, is not some vague influence or mystic force. He is a divine Person, to be received with deep humility, veneration, and obedience. Therefore it is not a question of our having more of Him, but of His having more of us-yes, all there is of us.”-LeRoy Edwin Froom, The Coming of the Comforter, p. 159.

Amen!